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12/9/2015 Nationwide Equipment CEO meets with Afghanistan's president - Jacksonville Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2005/05/30/story6.html?s=print 1/2
From the Jacksonville Business Journal:
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2005/05/30/story6.html
Nationwide Equipment CEO meets with
Afghanistan's president
May 30, 2005, 12:00am EDT Updated: May 26, 2005, 1:53pm EDT
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Jacksonville company was among about 30
throughout the country asked to meet with Afghanistan President Hamid
Karzai on May 24 to discuss the possibilities for doing business in the
developing country.
"We've got a lot of interest and potential customers," said Ed Kostenski,
president of Nationwide Equipment Co., which exports refurbished heavy
construction equipment. "The need for infrastructure and rebuilding is
phenomenal."
Kostenski was asked to meet with Karzai by the U.S. Department of
Commerce, which hosted the Afghan leader for a forum. Karzai was in the
country to give the commencement address at Boston University.
"Our coming together with President Karzai represents an opportunity to find
quality opportunities for American businesses to do business in a free and
democratic Afghanistan," said Dan McCardell, director of business liaison for
the Commerce Department.
Other businesses at the meeting included Morgan Stanley, Phelps Dodge
Corp., Overstock.com Inc. and Globecomm Systems Inc.
Karzai told the gathering that Afghanistan is "wide open to do business,"
Kostenski said. It takes about a week to get a business license there,
compared with several months when the country was controlled by the
noun: оборудование, аппаратура, оснаще

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12/9/2015 Nationwide Equipment CEO meets with Afghanistan's president - Jacksonville Business Journal
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Taliban.
The greatest need, Karzai told the group, is for housing.
"He said you can make a lot of money building houses or selling building
equipment," Kostenski said.
Nationwide has had great success in recent years exporting equipment to
developing countries. Kostenski said there are risks involved in such
endeavors but that they are manageable for companies willing to do their
homework and position employees like Akthar Kazi, Nationwide's director of
Middle East operations, in those markets.
"There are a lot of opportunities available to small companies," Kostenski said.
Kostenski's invitation to the meeting stemmed from a Commerce Department
trade mission to Afghanistan in April, which the department invited Kazi to
attend.
The invitation was the latest in a string of honors Kostenski has received. Last
year, he was recognized by Bush as an example of a small businessman
competing globally, and he received the 2004 Governor's Business
Diversification Award for excellence in exporting.
In March, Kostenski was named to the Ex-Im Bank's Sub-Saharan Africa
Advisory Committee, a 10-member panel that advises the Export-Import Bank
of the United States on its policies to support U.S. exporting to Africa.
Tony Quesada
Staff Writer